The Character Question: What do they want and why?

In an interview with James Altucher, bestselling author Brad Meltzer points out that the plot isn’t what captures the reader’s attention (or the author’s attention for that matter).

What really counts is the motivation of the character. That’s what people care about.

Meltzer asks himself about each character:

What does my character want? Why?

If he doesn’t know the answer to these questions then he can’t include them in the story. He has to be able to identify what a character wants and why...